The Paranormal Database

Man with Cane

Location: Shard End - All Saints Church and Shard End Lake areas
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: A man wearing a top hat and black-tailed coat, carrying a cane is said to haunt this area, and may have been spotted several times by the same witness in 1991.

Old Woman in Red Cape

Location: Smethwick - Black Patch Park, area near the canal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: This female entity vanished in front of one witness who walked through the park pushing a pram.

Vanishing Hand

Location: Smethwick - St Philip's Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: Circa 1954, mid-summer
Further Comments: Two young boys playing in the church grounds were close to the statue of Saint Philip. They watched the left hand suddenly break off and fall to the ground, leaving a black void in place of the hand. The boys looked away for a few minutes and when they looked back the left hand was back in place.

Emily and Friends

Location: Smethwick - Thimblemill Baths
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: Popular with ghost hunting teams, this building is reputedly home to several paranormal entities, including a horse, a figure in a green boiler suit, and a female named Emily.

A ghostly grey lady.

Lady in Grey

Location: Smethwick - Warley Abbey (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Though the area is now a public park, the area where the abbey once stood is still haunted by the lady in grey. It is rumoured she committed suicide after a love affair.

Strange Sounds

Location: Solihull - Park Hall (demolished 1970), Castle Bromwich
Type: Other
Date / Time: Pre-1970 (or 1930)
Further Comments: A family living in the hall left in 1930 after being driven out by the ghost (or, at least, stories about the ghost). Tales of a phantom being seen or strange noises heard persisted for a few more decades, although a 1958 newspaper article featured a local Alderman who claimed any haunting on the site to be a myth.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Solihull - Private residence, Chelmsley Wood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2018/9
Further Comments: A shadowy figure wearing a Fedora and coat was spotted by several occupants of a flat. Electronic toys would also turn themselves on for no apparent reason.

Vase Mover

Location: Solihull - Red Lion (aka The Lion Sport & Eat), Shirley
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: August 2021
Further Comments: This pub featured in local press after a vase moved unaided and fell from a shelf. It was reportedly not the first time items had been relocated.

Shrieking Woman

Location: Solihull - Road between Solihull and Knowle, near a pond and overhanging trees (which may no longer exist)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom woman who drifted the area issuing piercing shrieks reportedly drowned nearby.

White Figure

Location: Solihull - Road between town and Elmdon Heath
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1907
Further Comments: Tales of a phantom dressed in white were put to bed after a worker was found walking along the road by police at night. It was said he wore white to ensure he was seen by motorcyclists.

Halo

Location: Stechford - The Meadway
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1982
Further Comments: Driving back from work in the early hours of the morning, this witness spotted a halo shaped object hovering and darting around the sky before vanishing.

Cyclist

Location: Stoneleigh - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1928
Further Comments: Two people in a car watched a cyclist in late nineteenth century clothing crash into the bridge. When the witnesses stopped to help, they discovered the cyclist had vanished. A record exists of a man dying in a cycling accident in 1885 at the same location.

Bella

Location: Stourbridge - Badgers Sett public house (was Gypsy's Tent pub)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s onwards
Further Comments: Nicknamed Bella, the phantom woman said to haunt the cellar and bar area is said to be connected to the body of a female which was found in Wych Hazel nearby. A ghostly male in uniform has also been spotted on the road outside the pub.

Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?

Location: Stourbridge - Hagley Wood
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: A woman discovered inside the hollow trunk of a Wych Hazel was thought to have been murdered in an unknown ritual. Shortly after the crime, graffiti sprang up asking 'who put Bella in the Wych Elm?'. The crime remains unsolved to this day, and animals are reported to be weary of the area.

Nurse

Location: Stourbridge - Manor house (no longer standing), New Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 - 07 January 1927
Further Comments: A ghost was seen on several nights standing on the lawn of the manor house. One witness claimed to have seen the figure three times, describing it as a beautiful nurse, some seven feet tall and aged around forty years old, which vanished when spoken to. One resident of the manor house fainted several times, although it was not clear whether the ghost caused this reaction, or the crowd of hundreds of people who had gathered to wait and watch for the entity. The police dispersed the mob.

Tall Nurse

Location: Stourbridge - Old Manor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1927
Further Comments: Arthur Robinson Wright wrote that hundreds of people flocked to this house after a ghostly, seven foot tall nurse appeared.

Steam Train

Location: Stourbridge - Private residence, Wollescote
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 1983
Further Comments: A witness listened to the sound of an old fashioned steam train approach her bedroom before feeling something rush past her.

Shelf Disruption

Location: Stourbridge - The One Stop Shop, Norton
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2003
Further Comments: This shop was plagued by poltergeist-like behaviour, the management putting the blame on 'bad electrics', while staff and visitors saying that the contents of the shelves were being pushed to the ground by 'something else'. A local psychic claimed the ghost of an old woman was to blame, and that he had moved her on.

Headless Man

Location: Sutton Coldfield - New Hall Hotel and Wylde Green Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1820s onwards
Further Comments: This headless figure is thought to have been a local man mistakenly found guilty for being a Jacobite spy. The man was executed, and his head left in an oak tree where it remained until the 1820s - the tree was cut down and the skull rediscovered. Since then, the headless phantom is said to walk around the area (or the head rolls around looking for its body, depending on the source).

Mary Ashford

Location: Sutton Coldfield - Private house along Penn's Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost of a young girl has been observed here, closely matching the description of Mary Ashford, murdered in the early nineteenth century.

Old Man with a Walking Stick

Location: Sutton Coldfield - Private residence, Wylde Green area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1967, 02:00h
Further Comments: While staying in a converted attic, paranormal writer Mike Coutts encountered a smartly dressed old man holding a walking stick in the early hours of the morning. The figure vanished when Coutts turned the light on. The author also said that the tapping of a walking stick would be heard moving up the staircase towards the room. According to the local press, Coutts had only spent a couple of weeks at the property many years previous and was looking for help to find the exact location where his encounter occurred.

Tiny Frogs

Location: Sutton Coldfield - Sutton Park
Type: Other
Date / Time: June 1954
Further Comments: Baby frogs, no bigger than a thumbnail, were said to have fallen from the sky during a heavy rain shower. The downpour lasted for around five minutes, depositing thousands of the amphibians.

Man in Red Cloak

Location: Sutton Coldfield - The Gate Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: This brightly cloaked figure is one of two figures which haunt this building - the other is named as a lost cavalier.

White Lady

Location: Sutton Coldfield - Westwood Coppice (west side of Sutton Park)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Reputedly every night (story dates from nineteenth century)
Further Comments: A woman who was betrayed by her lover drowned herself in a nearby pond (that no longer exists). Her ghost, dressed in white, wrings her hands as it drifts through the trees.

Man on Bench

Location: Walsall - Bentley Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: Walking home from the gym, a witness walked past the cemetery and spotted a man sitting on a bench. The figure looked in his seventies and wore glasses. The witness turned briefly took his eyes off the figure, during which time the man vanished. The cemetery was locked up and no one else could be seen.